Rep. Kristin Bahner says the man who allegedly killed former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband also stopped at her home early on Saturday.
“The past several days have been surrounded by so much grief and fear,” Bahner, a DFLer from Maple Grove, wrote in a statement sent to reporters on Wednesday. It was the first time Bahner acknowledged she was targeted. “This senseless violence came to my door as well, placing me and my family in harm’s way.
“I do not know why this man was filled with such hatred that he would come to my door; divine intervention led my family to change our plans keeping us safe,” she continued.
Police arrested a 57-year-old Green Isle, Minn., man on Sunday after a weekend-long manhunt and charged him with multiple counts of murder and the attempted murder of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.
Officials say the man, Vance Boelter, stopped at homes of four lawmakers in the northwest Twin Cities metro early on Saturday morning. Federal prosecutors identified the Hoffmans and the Hortmans but did not name the other two. Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, identified herself as the third earlier this week.
In a lengthy statement Wednesday identifying herself as the fourth lawmaker, Bahner thanked the Maple Grove Police Department for their protection in recent days and mourned the Hortmans’ deaths and the Hoffmans’ injuries.
“There is no answer to this senseless violence,” she wrote. “I know Melissa would have grounded us in how we come together to lean on one another, find a way to lift each other up, and strengthen Minnesota for all of our neighbors.”
Bahner, who’s serving her fourth term, said she will continue to serve her community, and, echoing the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, said she will meet bad trouble visiting her door with her own “good trouble.”
